Cyclotourismo meets Couchsurfing

Six years go by and it's like nothing has changed at all! And in a city with so much history I suppose six years is less than a blink of an eye but to me, it's incredible. We rolled into Florence after a somewhat challenging trainride (running to catch trains, waiting to catch trains, shuffled to bike accepting trains, holding our bicycles upright for an hour because of lack of space...always an adventure!!) to find the city just as I left it, Gorgeous! You can't help but love it here! And, amazingly, I remember everything! I found my old flat, restaurants that I liked, places I shopped all still in place. It's amazing in comparison to some of the places I've been (Boulder especially) that there appears to be much much less turnover. Or maybe everything just moves slower. I love the pace here, relaxed but still very upbeat and very lively. We arrived on Thursday, just in time for a kickin' weekend of festivals and events! Squeezed in a ride to Greve, outside town, Lou's folks come in today and we are just enjoying being here!

We spent about a week in Switzerland! What a crazy country squashed in between all these others, four official languages but very nationalistic and different! We arrived in Geneva, stepped off the train and saw a city that looked very similar to the French cities we had just come from. I expected a greater distinction, even the language was the same. Yet as soon as you leave the station you start to see and feel the differences. Switzerland, especially with the influence of Geneva where we spent most of our week, seems much more industrial and more like the US than France seemed. The landscape too is different, the lake was incredible (really lake, more like small freshwater ocean), and the people, though in that area also speak French, speak slower, seem more precise in some ways.
We spent a few days in Geneva then I had my own adventure by bicycle, out and back for a few days!
I discovered that while 9 or 10 degrees Celsius is still okay, good even for hilly swiss cycling, 6 or 7 degrees is a bit too cold for me. My hands and feet were nippy fer sure. And with the potential for rain on top of that I decided not to go quite as far as planned. It did not rain and was gorgeous, especially the day back to Geneva, and my hosts were awesome! So so fun!

Adventures in riding French trains during le Grave (the strike)! Someday I will get around to filling these all in and I want them in the right spots so...to be continued!

South again, through the Dordogne region. My favorite biking day ever! Maybe! Where I'd come back to! ...to be continued

From Nantes turning south to the coast and on to Bordeaux and surrounding area! More to come!